"Smurfs" Neck and Neck with "Cowboys & Aliens" at Box Office

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Family film "The Smurfs" snuck up on "Cowboys & Aliens" for an opening weekend earnings tie.

In this weekend's biggest box office surprise, a family movie about little blue creatures kept pace with an all-star thriller about giant evil creatures.

Both movies opened to $36.2 million in estimate weekend earnings—which was great news for "The Smurfs" but not such great news for "Cowboys & Aliens."

That's because "Cowboys" cost more than $50 million than "Smurfs" to produce, and it involved the efforts of a slew of major Hollywood talent, including Stephen Spielberg and Ron Howard as executive producers, "Iron Man" director Jon Favreau and stars Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford.

The fact that "Smurfs" got a 3-D release where "Cowboys" did not could account for some of its relative success, too. 3-D takings counted for almost half the movie's gross.

Stars Steppin' Out

And according to E! Online, more than half the "Smurfs" audience consisted of parents with children.